Annually, British
population puts out enough food to sustain up to 196 million birds
Tuesday
21 May 2019 16:27
Populations
of birds like
goldfinches and wood pigeons that
were rarely seen in gardens 40 years ago are now booming because people are
leaving out food for them, according to a new study.
As
a result they are "reshaping" entire communities, researchers
said.
“Back in
the 1970s goldfinches and wood pigeons were seen eating food in
10 per cent of gardens whereas now they’re in around 90 per cent of
gardens which have food out,” lead researcher Kate Plummer from the
British Trust of Orthonology (BTO) told The Independent.
During
that decade, households mainly put out nuts, oats and seed mixes. At the
time, half of all birds using feeders were either sparrows and starlings.
Now
there’s much more choice, with fat balls, niger seeds, suet cake and sunflower
hearts all on sale. As a result there is a greater diversity of birds
coming into our gardens, including long-tailed tits, siskins, nuthatches and
bullfinches.
On a wing
and a prayer: British birds under threat
Sparrowhawks,
magpies, pheasants and carrion crow have also done well because they predate on
birds that feed from bird feeders.
A few
species like song thrush and mistle thrush who rarely come to feeders have seen
numbers decline.
“We now
know that garden bird feeding is one of many important environmental
factors affecting British bird
numbers," Dr Plummer said. “Regular visits
to garden feeders in urban areas appear to have led to population
growth across more than 30 different bird species, while there has been no
change in the average population sizes of birds that don’t visit
feeders."
Annually,
British bird-lovers put out enough food to sustain up to 196 million birds at a
cost of £300m a year, according to the study published in Nature Communications journal.
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